“How much is life worth?”: to watch or not to watch the new Netflix drama about the September 11 attacks?

In “Hungry for Power” Michael Keaton played Ray Kroc, a hard-working milkshake-making machine salesman who, after insisting almost ad nauseam, convinces two brothers – the creators of the McDonald’s brand – to expand their business through a franchise partnership. Although in his purpose he finds many obstacles, finally the protagonist of the film ends up appropriating a brand that over the years would become an empire of fast food.

We remember this movie from 2016 after seeing “How much is life worth?”, the new drama about the terrorist attacks of September 11 that is available on Netflix, and that also has Keaton in his leading role. On this occasion, although the character he plays is initially cold and calculating like Ray Kroc, there is a subsequent twist that makes him extremely human. Beyond this difference, something that is similar is that in the two films Keaton plays a very self-confident guy, that is, someone who knows he is capable of transcending.

Horrendous terrorist attacks committed in the United States on September 11, 2001 left more than three thousand dead. At a time when social networks were not yet a key part of our communication, TV broadcasts were. This is how millions of citizens around the world saw live how planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Although many people managed to flee the buildings and save their lives, others could not. Firefighters, executives, workers, nurses or students perished because of the insanity of Al Qaeda.

Aware that an event of such magnitude could lead to multiple civil lawsuits against the airlines involved and, therefore, to judgments and compensation that lead to bankruptcy, the US authorities decided to propose from Congress a Compensation Fund for the Victims of the 11 of September. The objective was not only to stop the possible demands, but also to shield the commercial aviation system and, therefore, stop a possible breakdown of the tourist circuit throughout the United States.

Presented as a lawyer and university professor specialized in determining how much the bereaved should receive in compensation for lawsuits related to various issues, Ken Feinberg (Michael Keaton) finds in this Fund a possibility to transcend. It was, without a doubt, an unprecedented initiative for a similar situation. What for many was a ‘hot potato’, turned out to be Feinberg’s great objective, who after applying and even clarifying that he did not want to receive any honorarium for his performance, is finally appointed by the Government. From here he begins an arduous path that will be fundamentally a path of personal conversion.

“How much is life worth?” shows how difficult it is to equate the pain caused by the death of a loved one with a figure of money. How much would we demand from a company if our mother died due to their direct or indirect responsibility? What if only one nephew died? What if the deceased was our sick 95-year-old grandfather? A priori, one might think that in a massive misfortune like that of September 11, everyone should receive the same compensation. But it’s not quite like that. At that early stage of the film, Ken Feinberg seems on board with the idea that a deceased executive inside one of the towers should get more than, I don’t know, a migrant worker. Why? “Because the executive had a more expensive mortgage,” he replies when rebuked by a group of relatives of the victims of September 11.

But trying to negotiate with so many relatives ends up being a kind of therapy for Feinberg and the team of lawyers at his studio. And it is that behind each victim of barbarism there are fathers, mothers, brothers, husbands and, many times, children. Each one has a testimony to offer about that person who one day went to work at the World Trade Center and never came back. It is those long minutes of dialogue that end up opening the head of a lawyer accustomed to exact and non-negotiable figures.

Of course, this story is not a string of tears and pain either. Structurally that would have been tedious, flat and very local (for this is a fundamentally American tragedy). This film is also concerned with presenting the victims in their most human side. A firefighter whose death reveals that he had two daughters out of wedlock. The parents of a victim prevent his same-sex partner from accessing the benefits of this fund. Ken Feinberg and his colleagues will witness how complex our society can become.

Without being round in various aspects (beyond the great performance of Keaton and a very acceptable work of Stanley Tucci as Charles Wolf, the widower who manages to move Feinberg and propose a more human Fund), “How much is life worth?” achieves its purpose by showing us how human misfortune is capable of moving the most reluctant of lawyers. And, finally, Sara Colangelo’s film refreshes our memory – without the need to resort to showing lurid images of the attacks perpetrated exactly 20 years ago – of the evil power that those who do not believe in democracy or in freedoms it defends.

THE TOKEN:

Original title: “How much is life worth?”

Synopsis: In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the US, an attorney must attempt to determine the monetary value of the lives that were lost. Based on real events.

Platform: Netflix.

Duration: 2 hours

Director: Sarah Colangelo.

Classification: +13.

Rating: ★★★.

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